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Maximus
Not to be confused with the Series 6 and 7 competitor Brutus Maximus. Maximus was a wedge-shaped robot that fought exclusively in the New Blood Championship of Extreme 2. It did not show its full potential as it had weak drive motors and was eliminated in the second round by Roobarb. Maximus was constructed by students at St John's Comprehensive School, a technology college. The team started designing the robot in February 2001http://www.angelfire.com/home/made4fun/Theplan.htm, with construction of the robot beginning in Mayhttp://www.angelfire.com/home/made4fun/TheBuild.htm. Design Maximus ran a Roman theme with its design, and could drive at 15mph, armed with a spinning disc and a front-hinged lifter (referred to as a 'flipper' on its statistics board) that become a front 'shield' when locked into position. The team claimed the disc to be three times as powerful as Hypno-Disc's, spinning at a reported maximum of 18000rpm, which would have made it the fastest spinning weapon in Robot Wars if true. Etymology Maximus was named after "Maximus Decimus Meridius", the main character in the film Gladiator. http://www.angelfire.com/home/made4fun/Extreme2002.htm Qualification Maximus was originally intended to enter Series 5, and successfully qualified for the series. However, the team were forced to withdraw from the competition after the pneumatic equipment in the robot was revealed to be incapable of withstanding the gas pressures intended for use in Maximus. Due to a change in rules in 2002 regarding which pneumatic bottles could be used, the team were forced to give Maximus a major rebuild, and the robot was only fully completed the day before the qualifiers. At the qualifiers, it fought Dantomkia, Destruct-A-Bubble and Iron-Awe 2, but lost after being flipped by Dantomkia. While Dantomkia went on to win the battle, only Iron-Awe 2 received a discretionary place to qualify, meaning that Maximus failed to qualify for Series 6http://www.angelfire.com/home/made4fun/Qualifying_2002.htm. Instead, Maximus entered the New Blood Championship in the second series of Extreme. Robot History Extreme 2 Maximus faced Mr Nasty and Niterider in its first battle. From the off, Maximus was caught by Mr Nasty and shoved around the arena onto the arena side wall. Mr Nasty shoved it several more times, activating the pit in the process, before shoving it onto the flame pit. Refbot then examined Maximus, who wasn't moving, but its flipper still was, so Refbot moved over to the immobile Niterider and counted it out. While the House Robots attacked Niterider, Mr Nasty pitted the now fully immobile Maximus, but both were through. Next, Maximus faced Roobarb. Roobarb began by lifting Maximus and tipping it over. Maximus tried to self-right but was only able to do so with Roobarb's help, balancing on its own flipper. Roobarb then flipped it again, this time onto its side, before trying to flip it out of the arena, but was only able to right it. Maximus drove into a CPZ, was attacked by the House Robots, and immobilised. Shunt put the fallen robot onto the Drop Zone, which dropped a cooker onto Maximus. Mr. Psycho finished the battle with a blow from his hammer. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 1 *Losses: 1 Series Record MaxProto.jpg|A prototype for Maximus, early in construction MaximusConstruction.jpg|Maximus without its armour during construction UnpaintedCenturion.jpg|Maximus before being painted ConstructionFlip.jpg|Maximus with the flipper raised, during construction Round1 damage1.jpg|Maximus after its battle with Mr Nasty Quals6 aftermath.jpg|Maximus (background) after losing its Sixth Wars qualifier DecimusandMaximus.jpg|Decimus during construction. Note Maximus on display in the background Outside Robot Wars After its appearance on Robot Wars, Maximus was placed on the wall at St John's school, occasionally being taken down for static display at school open evenings and other events. The team also built a second robot called Decimus, which was a rectangular, invertible, four-wheeled robot armed with two horizontal spinning discs. Work on the robot originally began in September 2002, but the project was put on hold when Maximus was asked to compete in Extreme 2. Decimus was not finished in time for Series 7, with the last known update dating back to December 2003, so Decimus was never entered into Robot Warshttp://www.angelfire.com/home/made4fun/Decimus_is_designed.htm. Trivia *Other names considered for Maximus included Gladiator, Matador, They Think It's All Over (It Is Now), Dave Blister, Maximus Destructicus and Spark-At-Us.http://www.angelfire.com/home/made4fun/Theplan.htm *During the construction of Maximus, the team got technical advice from Brian Fountain and Shane Howard of Team Mace.http://www.angelfire.com/home/made4fun/Regrouping.htm References External Links *Team Gladiator website Category:UK Series competitors Category:New Blood Competitors Category:Extreme only competitors Category:Robots from Durham Category:Robots with Spikes Category:Robots with Cutting Discs Category:Victims of The Drop Zone Category:Robots from Schools or Universities Category:Robots with names based on film and television Category:Robots that forfeited a place Category:Robots with an equal amount of Wins and Losses Category:Robots with Lifters Category:Robots which debuted in Extreme 2 Category:Robots which only fought in Extreme 2